Photo by Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright

Franz Wright

The son of poet James Wright, Franz Wright was born in Vienna in 1953. During his youth, his family moved to the Northwest United States, the Midwest, and northern California.

Wright's collections of poetry include Wheeling Motel (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009); Earlier Poems (Random House, 2007); God's Silence (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006); Walking to Martha's Vineyard (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003) which received a Pulitzer Prize, The Beforelife (2001); Ill Lit: New and Selected Poems (1998); Rorschach Test (1995); The Night World and the Word Night (1993); and Midnight Postscript (1993).

He has also translated poems by René Char, Erica Pedretti, and Rainer Maria Rilke.

Wright has received the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry, as well as grants and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Waltham, Massachusetts.